Descartes' Mechanistic Physiology and Harvey's Discovery of the Circulation of Blood

The aim of this thesis is to show in what way the mechanistic philosophy of René Descartes allowed him to accept William Harvey's discovery of the circulation of the blood, while at the same time prevented him from accepting his explanation of the movement of the heart. In the introductory section we mention some of the basic notions concerning the state of natural philosophy in the second half of the 16th century which are closely related to the themes of the thesis. Both authors we are concerned with are also presented. The second, historicaly oriented section focuses on Aristotle's, Galen's and Harvey's opinions on the role and motion of the heart and blood in the human body. The aim is to describe how Harvey's 1628 treatise De motu cordis allowed to resolve the proliferating problems faced by the Galenist tradition in the 16th and the early 17th century. The third section presents the exposition of the introductory chapters of Descartes' 1633 treatise Le Monde in which he introduces the basic notions of his new mechanistic philosophy. Among these are the three types of particles, the plenist conception of the world, the omnipresence of circular motions and the relationship between God, natural laws and motion in the world. The fourth section is dedicated to Descartes' a Harvey's point of..